How to Open a Salon in Dubai: Licences, Approvals, Staff Visas and Costs

Opening a salon in Dubai is a licensing project before it is a design project. The licence activity decides the layout, the layout decides the fit-out, and the trade licence decides when you can hire. This guide takes each step in the order you meet it, with the rules that catch new owners out and a timeline at the end.

One example runs through it: a 4-chair ladies' salon with a two-station nail area and two treatment rooms, in a mainland retail unit. Its numbers are assumptions that show the maths, not benchmarks.

Rules as they stood on 3 November 2026. Activities, fees and approvals change, so confirm each step with the Department of Economy and Tourism (DET), Dubai Municipality, your free zone if you use one, and an FTA-registered tax agent before you sign a lease.

#Should your salon be on the mainland or in a free zone?

If clients will walk in from a street, a mall or a residential community, plan on a mainland licence from DET. Federal guidance on u.ae says a free zone company that wants to sell to the local market must go through a licensed mainland distributor or set up a mainland branch or company, and that direct mainland sales generally need mainland licences or approvals.

If the unit you want sits inside a free zone, ask that authority whether it licenses salon activities. Dubai's Executive Council Resolution No. 11 of 2025 regulates how free zone establishments operate in the emirate outside their zones; ask DET and your free zone whether it covers a salon before you rely on it.

Depending on the legal form, a mainland business wholly owned by non-GCC nationals may still need a local service agent, so confirm what applies to yours at the initial approval stage.

#Which licence activities do you need?

Choose activities that cover every service on your menu: Dubai Municipality's guideline requires your services to match the activities on your licence. Its health and safety permit covers activities such as gents' and women's salons, children's hairdressing, henna salons, cosmetic and personal care centres, hair fixing centres, oriental baths, massage and relaxation centres, and spa clubs.

Two rules shape the business before you have a floor plan.

Men and women. If your licence covers activities for both, Dubai Municipality requires the men's and women's sections to be completely separate, each with its own external entrance and no common areas.

Medical-adjacent treatments. Dubai Municipality sends salons to DHA for approval before offering non-surgical cosmetic services, and forbids medical advice, treating skin conditions and unauthorised medical services. Under DHA's Standards for Non-Surgical Cosmetic Procedures (version 2.1, effective 18 February 2025), a DHA-licensed beauty therapist may perform a limited list of procedures in a salon without a healthcare professional's supervision, but laser hair removal, IPL and microneedling are excluded. If they are in your plan, talk to DHA first.

#How do you get a trade licence in Dubai?

On the mainland, DET issues the licence after a fixed sequence, set out in the federal guidance on u.ae:

1. Choose the activity and legal form. The form must suit the activity.
2. Reserve the trade name with DET. It can't repeat a registered name, and it must include the legal-form abbreviation where the form requires one, such as LLC.
3. Get initial approval. This is the government's no-objection to your business. It does not let you operate.
4. Sign the memorandum of association, and a local service agent agreement where one is required, attested by a notary or court.
5. Lease the premises. In Dubai the tenancy contract must be registered in Ejari.
6. Get the approvals your activity needs. For a salon that means Dubai Municipality's health and safety permit and building approvals for the fit-out, and you will need a valid fire safety certificate from Dubai Civil Defence on site.
7. Pay the fees within 30 days of receiving the payment voucher, or the application is cancelled, then collect the licence.

The licence is the gate for hiring: MOHRE (the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation) asks for a copy of it with every work permit application.

#What does Dubai Municipality check before you open?

Two things: your furniture layout before you open, and how you run the salon once you do.

The layout permit

Dubai Municipality's Health and Safety Department issues a no-objection permit for practising health and safety activities. You need it for a new company or branch, a changed layout, an added activity, a move or a mobile service. Apply on the Dubai Municipality website with a one-page furniture layout showing every service, the furniture, dimensions in metres and areas in square metres; the approved layout comes back with the permit. The service card in version 3 of the requirements (May 2024) lists it as free, taking one working day.

The permit covers health and safety only. Building approvals for the fit-out come from the building licensing authority for your premises; your landlord can tell you which one.

Running the salon to the guideline

Once open, you are inspected against Dubai Municipality's guideline for salons, barbershops and beauty centres (version 5, 26 March 2026).

The guideline also sets equipment from day one: UV sterilisers for cutting, styling, brow and lash tools, and dry-heat or steam sterilisers with time and temperature control for metal nail tools. Single-use tools are thrown away after use, products must be approved, labelled to the UAE standard and in date, and staff may not live or cook on the premises.

#How do you hire staff and get their visas?

On the mainland, each foreign hire goes through MOHRE for a work permit and the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs (GDRFA) for entry and residence. Work Bundle, the federal recruitment platform, handles permits, residency, Emirates ID, medical tests and contracts with one data entry and one payment channel.

1. Open an establishment file with MOHRE. You get an electronic signature card, and the ministry inspects the premises.
2. Apply for each work permit with the licence, the signature card, a photo and a passport valid for at least six months. The worker must be 18 or over, the job must match your activity, and MOHRE sets how many people you can hire.
3. Lodge a AED 3,000 bank guarantee per worker, or instead buy an insurance policy that covers unpaid wages and end-of-service dues, at AED 137.50 per skilled worker or AED 180 per low-skilled worker (u.ae, updated 7 August 2025).
4. Pay within the permit's 60 days. Fees and the guarantee must be paid while the work permit is valid.
5. Get the entry permit from GDRFA. It is valid for two months, in which the worker completes the medical fitness test, applies for an Emirates ID and gets a labour card, before the residence visa is issued.

In Dubai, employers must provide health insurance, and since 1 January 2025 a policy has been required before a private-sector employee's residency permit is issued or renewed. Unemployment insurance is the worker's own responsibility, with a AED 400 fine for not subscribing, so remind new hires.

The labour rules for your contracts

The UAE Labour Law, Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021, has applied since 2 February 2022.

#How much does it cost to open a salon in Dubai?

There is no single official figure: it depends on the activity, legal form, unit, fit-out and team. Get written quotes for each line below; where a public figure exists, it is shown.

The last line is the easiest to underestimate, because it depends on how fast clients arrive.

At an average bill of AED 180 before VAT, the example salon needs 17 bills a day to break even. If that looks out of reach, look at the menu prices; our guide to salon service pricing works them out from cost.

#Do you need to register for VAT and corporate tax?

Plan for both from the start. A company set up on or after 1 March 2024 must apply to register for corporate tax within three months of incorporation (FTA Decision No. 3 of 2024); the rate is 0% on taxable income up to AED 375,000 and 9% above it. VAT registration is mandatory once taxable sales pass AED 375,000 over the previous 12 months, or will in the next 30 days, and voluntary from AED 187,500 of taxable sales or taxable expenses, which a large fit-out can reach.

Once registered for VAT, every price you publish must include it. Our guide to UAE VAT for salons covers registration, tax invoices, packages and penalties.

#What changes in Abu Dhabi or Sharjah?

The steps are similar but the authorities differ. Mainland licences come from the Department of Economic Development in Abu Dhabi and the Economic Development Department in Sharjah, and each emirate sets its own licence categories and municipal rules. The Dubai Municipality and DHA requirements above don't carry over, so ask that emirate's municipality and health regulator what a salon needs.

The Labour Law, MOHRE work permits, VAT and corporate tax are federal. Employer health insurance is mandatory in Abu Dhabi and Dubai and is being extended to the other emirates.

#A step-by-step timeline

No authority publishes an end-to-end timescale for a salon, because the fit-out and hiring set the pace. The order, with the published time limits, is:

1. Decide the concept: ladies, gents or both, the services, and whether any need DHA.
2. Reserve the trade name and get initial approval from DET, or apply to your free zone.
3. Test each shortlisted unit against Dubai Municipality's spacing, room and basin rules, then sign the lease and register it in Ejari.
4. Apply for the layout permit with a one-page furniture layout; its service card lists one working day.
5. Get building approvals and run the fit-out, including Civil Defence's fire safety requirements.
6. Pay the licence fees within 30 days of the voucher and collect the trade licence.
7. Register with MOHRE and apply for work permits. Each permit is valid for 60 days and each entry permit for two months, so recruit while the fit-out runs and arrange health insurance before residency.
8. Register for corporate tax within three months of incorporation, and track your running sales total for VAT from the first month.
9. Set up the front desk: a price list, consultation forms, booking and billing, and a deposit and cancellation policy (see a salon no-show policy).
10. Soft-launch, then open, asking first clients for reviews from week one; our guide to Google reviews for salons covers how to ask.